Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Legal => Topic started by: slightboyme on October 11, 2013, 03:30:39 AM



Title: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: slightboyme on October 11, 2013, 03:30:39 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: MRKLYE on October 11, 2013, 03:32:23 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

No laws against it here in Canada.. I would consider it a commodity if anything..
Buy here! https://cex.io/r/1/KLYE/0/  :D


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: Kluge on October 11, 2013, 03:43:58 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks
Legal where? Since you didn't specify, I'll go ahead and assume US.

Probably not, but it's contentious and depends somewhat on how the deal's structured, so make sure you have a good lawyer before proceeding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission_v._W._J._Howey_Co.


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: cowandtea on October 11, 2013, 03:45:39 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

Its illegal, any investment/security have to have licence.


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: Welsh on October 11, 2013, 05:52:09 PM
You should of said the county you are asking about. Different countries have different laws.


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: Ipsum on October 12, 2013, 01:15:02 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

That's just a service, no different from any other cloud-based service (Amazon EC2, etc).


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: genjix on October 12, 2013, 05:37:41 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

Its illegal, any investment/security have to have licence.

Are mining pools illegal?


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: balanghai on October 12, 2013, 05:44:21 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

Its illegal, any investment/security have to have licence.

Are mining pools illegal?

Are trolling illegal?


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: MSantori on October 13, 2013, 03:01:36 AM
The question, I think, that you are asking is: can a company legally accept money from public purchasers in exchange for its hashrate?

The answer is: It depends.

For United States issuers, at least, I can add some detail.  The way that most companies have been going about this is by selling "perpetual mining bonds".  These things - whatever else they might be - are securities subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act.  That means that the company must pay a princely sum to attorneys and often auditors for securities compliance work. For small issuances like the "IPOs" we've seen, that just isn't cost-effective.  Furthermore, they can only be sold to a limited number of non-accredited or unsophisticated investors.  Issuers have essentially ignored these requirements and sold them anyway, taking investors money in exchange for little more than a promise to pay them back out of whatever profits they generate.  That's not legal.

I think there is another way, a better way, to do this, and without violating the securities requirements.  Instead of selling a right to profits or equity in the company, a company might sell a right to the hashes themselves not tied to the performance of the company.  Just like Amazon might sell its terabytes on a Glacier server, a mining company might sell a subscription to its hashing power directly to its customers.  Key word being customers - not investors.  You'd need a lawyer to prepare a proper contract for you, and it wouldn't be cheap, but I think it can be done.  Also, I think a competent attorney could prepare a contract that might even be freely assignable to other customers.  I'd love to hear the opinion of any legal beagles out there.


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: b!z on October 13, 2013, 11:08:47 AM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

Its illegal, any investment/security have to have licence.

Are mining pools illegal?

Are trolling illegal?

Is correct grammar illegal?


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: darkmule on October 13, 2013, 11:24:42 AM
Why not sell it as a service?  In return for $X, the company promises to run a miner or miners at whatever hashrate, and any results of that accrue to the purchaser, or the mining pool of their choice.  Any agreement between the purchaser and the mining pool is between those two entities, and all the company is promising to do is run a program for some period of time, guaranteeing no results.


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: polarhei on October 13, 2013, 01:40:31 PM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

It's just commodity or service which helps you on the searching game. To label bitcoin (or related), Hashrate is just commodity or services, but the satisfied one (token) is treated as share.

 


Title: Re: Is selling hash rate legal?
Post by: polarhei on October 13, 2013, 01:47:20 PM
Is it considered bond/security or simply commodity?

Thanks

Its illegal, any investment/security have to have licence.

It depends what you write. Currently Bitcoin is a special thing as the regulation differs. Since to reduce the risk of legal problem, The hash rate is packaged as Helping you to deduce complex problem such as configurations.

The second is an actual machine to help you out, which will be shipped on hand. Is that illegal? These people not to say anything about the return, which ensure the issue.